The Best Laid Plans
by Story Weaver1
Summary: AU. Harry Returns after defeating Voldemort to find surprises of many kinds. Post HBP.


At last it was over. Harry had killed the Dark Lord Voldermort once and for all. He returned to Godric Hollow exhausted, injuried, and missing a few DA members but happy. As he reached what was his parents house he turned his mind to happier thoughts like Ron and Hermonie's wedding and how he might renew his relationship with Ginny. All such thoughts ceased when he saw who was waiting for him in his parent's living room.

" Ah Harry I was starting to get worried." said Dumbledore. "Would you like some tea? It's gone a bit cold I'm afarid" Harry's mouth dropped open as he stared at the very much alive wizard sitting on the guest chair.

"...Professor?" He asked at last. Dumbledore smiled at him.

" In the flesh Harry."

" But sir...you're dead."

" Oh right, reports of my demise have been greatly exagerated."He smiled again.

" But sir...I saw it. I Saw Snape Kill You!" Harry shouted.

" What you saw." Dumbledore began, he was no longer smiling. "Was a trick."

" A WHAT?"

" A trick, one that went badly." Dumbledore said. " I knew Hogwarts would be attacked somehow while I was away, that's why I had the Order stationed there when I was gone. I had it all planned out and yet it went so horribly wrong."

" You planned your own death?"

" Yes, I had planned for the occasion in which I might die. My Plan C, which also went array. It wasn't suppose to be Severus that 'killed' me, not in front of you giving you all the more reason to hate him."

" He was the reason my parents were killed! Of course I hate him!"

" I told he was sorry for that and did not know it would be your parents that were struck down." The old wizard explained. He gave a long sigh. "I had a plan Harry." Dumbledore sounded so _old_ when he said that. Tired and full of regret. " I had it all planned out, from the day I discovered your parents mudered and Voldemort gone. You were supposed to have a happy childhood amoung muggles so you could more appericate magic and more importantly care for muggles. Sending you to the Dursley's was my first mistake. I knew they weren't going to love you as much as Duddley but I didn't forsee the hatred they bared against you and wizards in general. Lily has been such a kind person I never suspected there was so much bad blood between her and her sister. You were treated so badly I feared you would learn to hate muggles and that I had given birth to Lord Rottahprrey." Seeing Harry's confusion he elabortated. " It's the letters in 'Harry Potter' rearranged." Harry nodded, still stunned by this new Dumbledore to do more. " Somehow you remained pure when Hagrid came to collect you. I thank Merlin Ronald Weselay was the one who sat with you on your first ride on the Hogwarts Express. A pure blood but without any arrogance. loyal through and through. a true friend. Your meeting with him could not have gone better if I had planned it myself. When you formed such a tight trio with Ron and Hermione Granger, a muggle with extraordinary intelligence and drive, I began to wonder if someone else was indeed planning it."

" However you disliked Severus from the momment you meet him and for shame. In my plan you got along better, not to the extent that you were friends. I could not ask that of Servus or you given his history with your father and mother. But to the extent that you did not immediately assume he was reasonable for everything that went wrong at Hogwarts." Harry felt rather ashamed at this point.

" But he killed you!" But still voiced his rage..

" I will get that in a momment Harry...Now where was I?" Harry counted to ten befoe answering.

" You wanted me and Snape to get along better in my first year."

" Oh yes, and that he would not take so much pleasure in punishing you. At least Flich is an equal opportunity punisher." Harry raised an eyebrow at that statement but remained silent. " It brought me tremndous joy to see that it was **you** that retrieved the Philosopher's Stone from the Mirror of Erise. Only someone Pure of Heart could have done that. The Sorting Hat told me how well you would do in Slytherin and I worried how you would use your magic once you had greater control of it. But my fears were unbased, you turned out to be the most Gryffindor of all Gryffindors." Harry was slightly embarrased by this. " You continued to impress me when you and Ron found the Chamber of Secrets all on your own and took on the Basilisk. This more then anything convinced you were capable of defeating Voldemort for defeated the Basilisk and destroyed Tom Riddle's Diary under your own power with only a little back up from Fawkes. As opposed to the pervious year where you won from the power of the your scar. "

" Your power grew stronger every year, your allies increased, you never hesitated to help others or vanquish som evil and you were never tempt by the Dark Arts. My plan would have been perfect if not for your hatred of Serverus. Don't tell the other professors I told you this but Serverus was the most valuable member of my staff. He could serve as a Spy, a teacher of Occlumency, DADA professor and Potionsmaster. My plan would have gone so much better if you two had gotten along, but Serverus always saw James when he looked at you and you never trusted him for a momment. In your third year when you discovered Serverus' past I thought your relationship would improve. 'Surely' I thought ' Harry would be sympathetic to a man who was bullied by the same group for years and lost his only love to his worst enemy.'" Harry felt really small at this point, he had never thought about it that way. " But your relationship only got worse. Yes Harry I have a point." Harry's eyes widened in surprise.

'How does he do that?'

" My greatest mistake of all was allowing Barty Crouch Jr to stay at Hogwarts as Alastor Moody. I thought I could use him to my advantage. Having a real dark wizard as DADA professor would useful training for when Voldemort finally returned. I thought I could control him, use him to feed false information to Voldemort. I had no idea he was going to use the Triwizard Cup as a portkey for his revival." This really sent Harry for a loop, _Albus Dumbledore_ didn't know something. " After that all my remaining plans where ruined. You were supposed to be much older, wiser, stronger before Voldemort was revived. In my original plan we were able to pervent Voldemort from comming back untill you had graduated from Hogwarts, perhaps as an Auror and settled down with Ginny." Harry's thoughts immediately turned to the red haired vixen and a wedding night causing him to go crimson. If Dumbledore noticed this he made no sign of it. " Once you had gained enough power I was going to show you where the Horcruxes where so we could destroy them together and you could learn a little more about Voldemort in the process. Then once they were all gone, with the entire Order present, we would revive Voldemort merely so he we could finish him off. The War would finally be over and there would be peace without signifigant loss of life. I could move on to more important things like teaching you how to propose to a girl with five older brothers." Harry blushed and looked down.

" Proffessor!" But then he looked up and saw a forced smile on Dumbledore's face. The smile faded quickly.

" But it was not to be. As you know I was outmanuvered durring the Triwizard Tournament. Because of my mistake Cedric Digory was killed, you almost were and Voldemort was revived far too soon. I wanted to accelerate your training but that blasted Ministry interfered. Umbridge never tried to teach you and I couldn't do anything without those cowards interupting!" By now Dumbledore was on his feet shouting. Harry had never seen Dumbledore to look so angry at anyone not even Voldemort himself.

" Sir.. are you alright?" He asked. The old wizard regained his composure and sat back down.

" I'm fine. Thank you Harry." He stroked his beard for several momments as if fidgeting. " That was the one year I was gratful for the curse on the DADA job, she was gone at the end of the year. By your sixth year I had lost valuable time training you. Your first teacher was a timid prat working for Voldemort, your second was a fraud, your third one was good as I'm sure you'll agree." Harry nodded, Remus was the first DADA teacher he had liked. " Your fourth was useful but I would traded a worthless one for him to pervent the end of the year tradgey. Your fifth was directly counter-productive. I'm surprised you're as good as you are.And I was quite impressed by your ability to organize the DA. By your sixth year I was running out of time. I could make you no stronger so I decided I had to teach you Voldemort's weakness in case I were to die. So I gave you lessons about Voldemort's past so you would learn of the Horcuxes and destroy them."

" Sir, about your death..." Harry started.

" Ah yes you have been waiting for that haven't you Harry? In my original plan I convinced Draco to turn his back on Voldemort, then Fawkes would arrive to heal any wounds I had from our adventure. We would take Draco to Room of Requirement, seal the Vanishing Cabinet, and leave Draco to hide there. Snape would guard the door to the Astronomy Tower to kept the Death Eaters from comming up, and your friends would be able to rouse more members of the DA then Mr.Longbottom and Ms.Lovegood. The sheer number of DA despite their inexperience would overwhelm the Death Eaters and if they were not beaten by the time you and I arrived they would be soon after. Since none of the Death Eaters escaped, Severus alone would return to Voldemort and report that while Draco had been killed in his attempt to kill me and the other Death Eaters had been routed by the Order, Severus himself finished me off. While Tom never trusted anyone, I believed this would make him hold Severus in higher regard for future missions. He would not have cared for the loss of the Death Eaters he sent to Hogwarts as long as I had been killed because of it. Because of Severus' skill in Occlumency, he would be able to fool Voldemort and continue working for me. I would dissapear with the Malfoys to a secret location known only to myself and one other."

" Who sir?"

" The Sorting Hat of course."

" Oh."

" I would send you secret messages on where to find the remaining Horcuxes and accompany you under a polyjuice potion. We would destroy them one by one then defeat Voldemort. This plan was risker then the first for their were more variables but it could not be helped. This plan too was a failure."

" Yes. The Death Eaters interupted your converting of Malfoy, only five members of the DA two came to help and Snape beytrayed us and killed you." Harry said his voice thick with venom.

" Now we reach the part you have most eagerly anticipated; How Severus killed me without killing me" Harry sat up a little straight so as to pay more attention. "When I saw the Death Eaters emerge from the Astronomy Tower stairs I knew something had gone horribly wrong. That's why I had Plan C; If Severus did not pervent the Death Eaters from coming he would kill me himself in front of them. This way all the Death Eaters would confirm his story when they reported to Voldemort. His action had to be convincing to fool them."

" But he used _Avada Kedavra _on you!"

"Harry, please don't tell me you fought Voldemort without nonverbal spells." It took Harry a momment to process this.

"...Snape..used..Expelliarmus in his mind."

" Very good Harry. 10 points for Gryffindor, for the memory and another 20 for correctly identifying the spell." joked Dumbledore as if they were back in Hogwarts. "I would Apparite to ground and use the Draught of the Living Death to fool everyone while Fawkes healed me, you do remember his song correct?" Harry nodded. "Fawkes would pretend to me me at the funeral, and so I could still help. Fortunately this plan worked, but not as well as I had hoped. Vodemort was not entirely connvinced I was gone and so I found it hard to move against him. Fortunately it seems I did not need to. " Harry found himself finally able to ask what he had been wanting to all evening.

" Professor, why did you come?"

" Well A little bird told me you broke up with Ginny after my 'death' and I wanted to tell you how foolish that was. Love after all is..." Dumbledore started.

" The most powerful force in the universe, I know. But I didn't want her to get hurt because of me." Harry finished.

" Harry, Vodemort would have found out about her sooner then you think, whether you were still going out or not. It would have been best to keep her by your side where you could keep an eye on her...and other things." Harry was once again bright red.

" Proffessor!" Dumbldore chuckled.

" I also wanted to apologize." He continued. " For being an old fool. All my plans turned out horribly and caused so much sorrow and suffering. I'm so sorry Harry."

" It's ok Proffessor really."

" Thank you Harry. Now I can rest." Dumbedore got up and walked to the door.

" Sir where are you going?" Dumbledore turned.

" I'm meeting Nicholas for Dinner."

"But he's dead." Dumbledore gave a knowing smile.

" Exactly. I've been fighting the Dark Arts for over a century, I would like to rest." The former Headmaster put a hand on Harry's shoulder as the younger wizard fought back tears. " Fawkes will be with you and this as well." Dumbledore placed his wand in Harry's pocket.

" Remember Harry, Death is but the next great adventure."

" I thought you wanted to rest sir." Harry smiled despite tears. Dumbledore laughed merrily.

" Touché Harry. Now I am off." He opened the door. " Goodbye Harry."

"**Harry**!" The boy who lived sat up with a start. He looked around and saw he was still in Godric Hollow and Ginny was sitting next to him. " You were talking in your sleep, are you ok?"

" Dumbledore was here! He was telling about his plan since Voldemort came back and..." Harry was cut off when Ginny kissed him.

" You're acting funny, I'll have Neville take a look at you later. But now you need to rest." She put her arms around him.

" But!" Harry tried to struggled but couldn't find the strength to resist her warm, inviting arms.

" Harry you just defeated the most powerful dark wizard ever, you deserve a good rest." Ginny soothed as she pulled Harry's head in her lap.

"_She's right Harry, you've earned your rest." _said a voice in Harry's mind.

' You have too, Professor.' The young wizard thought before drifting off to sleep as two wands fell from his pocket to the ground.

The idea about Snape using Expelliarmus instead of Avada Kedvra and Fawkes healing Dumbledore afterwards came from which I recommend going too. Rowling of course owns the Characters, the remains of the fic are mine.

I was quite distraught after reading HBP, I was in a funk the rest of the day seriously I was. helped with that and now I write this as closure.


End file.
